


rule one

by opensummer



Series: drabbles [13]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, Gen, I Will Go Down With This Ship, POV Female Character, POV Outsider, The Author is Terrible at Naming Things, otp: who we are and who we need to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 09:58:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2577365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opensummer/pseuds/opensummer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Rule one of the ground- don’t get in between Mom and Dad when they’re fighting.”</p><p>“What.” Abby Griffin says flatly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	rule one

**Author's Note:**

> Set in a vague optimistic future where Clarke got her people and the Grounders out all on her own after extended bad things, and Bellamy and Clarke retained power (at least over their people and gaining influence over their people in the pop.- youth and/or low-class) because its clear the ARK doesn't understand the realities of the ground.
> 
> EDIT: 2014-11-09- I fucked up. Monroe got left by the Mountain Men same as Bellamy and Finn. The fic's been edited to reflect that and Monroe has been replaced with Fox who has yet to have a line and who's hair game is nowhere near as fierce as Monroes.

“Rule one of the ground-“ The girl beside her says utterly casually for all that she is literally holding Abby back, “don’t get in between Mom and Dad when they’re fighting.” 

“What.” Abby Griffin says flatly.

“Spectating’s alright.” the girl- Fox. (Her name is Fox and she came back from Mount Weather with a spectacular gash in her side and a nervous tension in every line of her body. Abby had nothing to do with her treatment because she had flinched from Abby and fled the medbay every time Clarke wasn’t there to bundle her onto a table and keep her there with the sort of competence doctors twice her age lack. Is it telling that she envies her daughters bedside manner?) “It’s always amusing to watch them go at it, but you do not want to get in the middle of that. Not even Finn is stupid enough to get in between them anymore.”

“No.” She says “Not that. You call them Mom and Dad?” Below them her daughter and Bellamy Blake are inches apart shouting into each others faces. Clarke’s strung out from a double shift in the infirmary, pale and thin. She never regained the weight from before her confinement where they keep delinquents on half-rations and Mount Weather has only exasperated the problem. She’s not sleeping, not eating. Abby’s _trying_ but it’s not enough. Clarke has not, as far as she knows, breathed a word about Mount Weather to anyone.

Fox has finally let go of her wrist. 

“Well duh.” And there’s an undertone there as if she’s just remembered who she is speaking to (from the ark, privileged, councilwoman, _adult_ ) that means not one of us. Whats left of the 100 routinely use that tone on adults they proceed to run circles around. (Finn doesn’t, but then Finn gets that tone directed at him almost as often as the adults do. She thought it might be a Mount Weather thing but Bellamy uses it too.)

(Clarke uses it.) 

Fox doesn’t stop talking though, “I don’t think they know that we call them that, but what else were we going to do? They lead, we follow and there’s usually some element of do as I say not as I do involved, so yeah Mom and Dad. Also Roma totally thought they were having nasty hatesex away from the kids but I never bought it.” 

Abby thinks Fox added that just to make her uncomfortable and the sidelong glance to check her reaction confirms it. She resents that a bit. (She also doesn’t know a Roma which probably means she’s dead.)

Clarke has broken away from Bellamy, is pacing, hands gesturing as she lays out the points of her argument. Her father used to do that too. She’s still shouting and Bellamy is just soaking it in. 

“Is it always like this?” And that’s admitting a weakness, as good as screaming I care too much to a child who likely will tell Bellamy or her daughter about this conversation, because her daughter still dodges her when they’re not in the infirmary and she’s got no idea where Clarke’s been sleeping.  

“Nah.” Fox breathes, eyes going wide as Clarke hits a nerve, and Bellamy strikes back and they both flinch before getting right back into each others faces. “This is some first week shit.” 

There’s a undertone to that phrase too, the same weight of _you will never understand so don’t even try_. 

“Like Mount Weather was rough, and Clarke caught the worst of it but this is ugly. They haven’t fought like this since-” She bites it off, another event Abby missed and therefore can’t understand, another secret the Delinquents are keeping from the rest of them. 

Abby thinks that’s it, that’s all she’s going to get from this girl who now knows her daughter better then she does but after a pause Fox adds “Bellamy picked the fight.”

She looks at them again, at her daughter (who forty-eight teenagers minus two plus one call Mom jokingly behind her back) throwing her hands up in exasperation, in defeat or anger, she can longer tell. At Bellamy Blake (who had wrapped his entire body around Clarke’s when she’d lead the delinquents back and then let go to argue with her about taking so long to get home) smirking, slinging an arm around her daughters shoulders and not getting shoved away from her.

Bellamy presses a kiss to Clarke’s temple, murmurs something into her hair. Her daughter laughs.  

Fox's smiling beside her. When she notices Abby’s watching her that smile turns nasty. “Looks like she doesn’t really need you, does she?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> A note on the wham line and Fox's characterization- I see the 100 as fiercely independent particularly in a world where they rescued themselves from Mount Weather. They are already _rocking_ the them vs us mentality, with a strong dash of distrust of authority. Coming back to a camp where they are refusing to change to suit the brave new world, where they undoubtedly imprisoned one of the 100s leaders would not work. Adults would rapidly become the enemy and after that any point you could land on the enemy is a bonus.
> 
> I'm on [tumblr](http://openemptysummer.tumblr.com/) , come geek with me


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